Jose Felix Lafaurie Rivera
@jflafaurie
In February 2013, I titled a column like this, when the negotiations with the Farc suffered their first setback due to the declarations of Iván Márquez demanding the right to capture prisoners of war!
In 2015, to put pressure on the government, they murdered 11 soldiers and committed 64 terrorist attacks! in three months. Marquez then stated that “The guerrillas have not been defeated and that is why the attacks will continue until we sign peace…”.
Today, in the midst of negotiations, the ELN torpedoed the Roundtable and betrayed the hope of Colombians, returning to the “logic of terror” as a negotiation strategy, which it had already used in the past. In 2018, after a cessation of hostilities concluded, it committed 33 terrorist acts in three months, in which seven soldiers and six police officers died, and the following year 23 young people died at the General Santander School.
While the ELN persists in its attacks on the Public Force, the oil infrastructure and the communities affected by its territorial control wars, the response of Antonio García, its commander, is no different: “There is still no agreement on a ceasefire (…) Therefore, the ELN can carry out military actions, as well as the Police and the government Armed Forces.”
No. The Public Force is legitimate and they are illegal; the Public Force defends society from its violations and they violate the society they claim to defend. The Public Force does not plant explosives on roads and oil pipelines, does not declare armed strikes or harass the population. A few days ago, the country was horrified by the murder of nine young soldiers, which García describes as a “military action.”
This is not the case, because peace is not only the silence of weapons, but the cessation of violence is a “sine qua non” condition for the collective construction of true peace, that of well-being for all.
In this way, a negotiation that has time and manner conditions will not advance: if the ELN does not negotiate sensibly and with a desire for peace with a leftist government, it will not do so with any.
We will wait for President Petro’s directions for the round of Cuba, but I advance my opinion; First: it is imperative to address the unilateral ceasefire, if the negotiations want to have credibility before society.
Second: the support of society is subject to not only stopping the armed confrontations, but also the harassment of the population: kidnappings, extortion, armed strikes, etc.
Third: the ceasefire and hostilities, when appropriate, must be regionalized, so that it is controllable and generates confidence to advance in the transformations in the territories.
And fourth: those transformations to change the lives of “the people”, who are the objective of negotiations and peace, will be impossible if the ELN persists in the logic of terror. So… what are we playing?